marri

rar file: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/an55072uco95nex/AAAGMbK6W192Z5rR8rmKbbQ5a?dl=0

(all art, sounds, and music assets courtesy of the resources provided within RPG Maker XP)

Artist’s Statement:

This class has been an interesting experience for me. I’ve been in a game design class before, but this one made me really push the boundaries on what I thought a game was. It also gave me new perspectives on what I could do with games. Our first project in scores was really what sold me on this.

I loved the healing aspect of Yoko Ono’s work, so I tried to go back to that and work it into my final project. In the game, the player starts off alone with no support. They are easily defeated by the boss – one hit, before they even get the chance to attack. But, the more they play, the more members of their former team rejoin and the stronger they get. I wanted the player to feel more empowered and hopeful as they continued to fight an initially futile battle.

This is also a similar sentiment found in the game I wanted to bring in for the indie game show and tell – Undertale. Unfortunately, I was absent on the actual day, but I wanted to go over the theme of friendship in the game. As the player goes on, they accumulate more friends that help them throughout the course of the game, a few of whom are set on destroying the player when they first meet. But through determination and a will to get through to these characters, the player is able to gain their support. I’m the type of person that relies on the presence of friends and family to make it through tough times, so I found this message incredibly touching knew that I wanted to make games that also had similar uplifting themes.

On that note, this class has also helped me realize the kinds of game that I want to make. I like making games that help make people happier or bring people together to have fun as a group (such as the game that I hosted for the third project). I feel as though a lot of art games like to deal with heavier themes that make you think. And I certainly don’t think that’s a bad thing – in fact, I think they’re important and should be made. But personally, I think I want to continue making games with a more light hearted sort of vibe. I don’t think I’ll steer entirely away from darker or more somber themes, but I’d like to incorporate them into a more uplifting message rather than making them the sole focus (I’m always a sucker for a happy ending, after all).

…and I think that’s about all I have to say in regards to the game. As for the class, I think it’s helped me figure out more about my own personal preferences by exposing me to different types of art. I also got a chance to mess around a bit and try out things in different mediums that I normally wouldn’t have thought to use. I think, in the future, I’ll continue to try and explore all the possibilities that I can.

RULES
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ViTqZYYTszPvttZIGsO6KrP4LhlGBkUfvVNT4OYduI0/edit?usp=sharing

DOCUMENTATION
Main game choices can be found on twitter.com/dinnerparty_GM

Screenshots of off-twitter discussion (please excuse my friends – they got progressively more aggressive as the game went on)

https://gyazo.com/55f67215beb8ac993712aa5716fbdeb5
https://gyazo.com/e845363a7c35a4c645379c1f314d2c36
(detective’s note taking)

https://gyazo.com/460a8a765c1bd23aa94ede5ec6ede2f5
(Mr.Kangaroo’s plan for Mission 4)

https://gyazo.com/fd489a26fb06e148f8e89817b91cce28
(having to put a time limit on my friends because they were pointing fingers at each other for 30 minutes)

https://gyazo.com/df00fabc7379f64a73f2f2e7cde3e699
(outsider curiosity [note: dem is my online moniker])

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

For this piece, I was mostly inspired by the documentary that we watched in class – The Institute. I loved the idea that you could take an ordinary, everyday setting and and give people a space in it where they were allowed to have a dramatic and exciting life, even if only for a moment. I also took note of how some of the former players said they felt in their interviews. I was particularly interested in how the players, despite being in the same space as usual, felt like they were special or that there was something different from them.

With this in mind, I set out to find a space to intervene in. I knew I wanted to try something out on a social media platform (just something I had always been curious about), but I wanted it to be something that captured the essence of everyday life. At this point, my mind drifted over to twitter.

I’m not sure how everyone else uses twitter, but for me and my friends, I’ve noticed that we all use it as a sort of stream of consciousness, open diary sort of thing. The kind of place where you just chat about little thoughts that pop up throughout your day. With only 140 characters to spare, it’s pretty difficult to try and get theatrical on twitter – perfect for an intervention.

As I said earlier, I wanted to allow players to step into a big, dramatic setting. And what better what to do that than with a murder mystery? Using games like Mafia and Avalon/The Resistance as a base, I made a game where players (hopefully) got to feel like detectives on a desperate search for a criminal. I made 5 unique twitter unique accounts for players to use – sort of an add on to give people that extra push into feeling as though they were stepping into a new role on a familiar website.

Gameplay was conducted on twitter and skype. I wanted to keep the twitter feed clean to preserve that theatrical sense, so I had them talk and debate over skype (easy considering we all had accounts anyways). My friends are fans of murder mystery type games, so they really got into their roles – the detective even going so far as to taking notes like an actual detective. Their enthusiasm spilled out into their personal twitters where their other friends started to grow curious and followed along as the game unfolded, creating a sort of spectacle out of it. I hadn’t anticipated this, but it made the game feel as though it were more of an intervention. Not only was this a unique space for players, but it was for spectators as well.

Rules:
For 4 Players (and 1 moderator)

• A picture is cut up into four pieces. The moderator assigns each player one of these pieces.
• The moderator places one of the pieces face down on the table and ensures that the player has the blindfold held up to their face and is ready. Then, the piece is flipped over and the player has 10 seconds to look at and memorize the image. At this point, the other three players must be facing another direction.
• After the ten seconds are up, the player must then draw out a recreation of what they saw on a piece of paper. Once they are finished, the turn of the next player will begin. This process will continue through the players one by one.
• After all players have seen and drawn their piece, they must put together their pieces and attempt to figure out what the original image was. If their guess is correct, they win.

Documentation:

Artist’s Statement:

When we were first assigned this piece, I immediately thought of the aspect of Dadaism where something practical is altered so that it no longer functions for its original purpose.  Based off of the pieces shown in the book and some of the works that we discussed in class, this seemed to be a reoccurring theme throughout the movement and I wanted to do something in a similar vein.

With this in mind, I started to think of things that could be changed so that they would not do what they were made to do. This reminded me of a set of wash clothes that I had bought from Target a few weeks prior. I had tried to use them while cleaning my room once and found that they were absolutely terrible – if anything, they made my room messier by not absorbing anything and spreading it around instead. In a sense, the manufacturers of the wash cloth had already done my work for me. They made an object that was useless for accomplishing its original purpose.

As I was playing around with the wash cloth to see what kinds of things I could do with it, I noticed that the fabric was somewhat porous (presumably so that it would be able to soak up a mess) and if you stretched it out and looked at it from the right distance, you could see through it. It wasn’t perfectly transparent, though, so I thought that I could use it as a blindfold of sorts.

This set the goal of my game into place. To be able to decipher an image while looking through the cloth. I experimented with looking at different images while blindfolded and noted that simple, basic outlines were the best bet. But it wasn’t much of a game to simply look at a picture through a cloth and then say what it is, so I split the image into four parts to add some challenge to the game. Players would have to cooperate in order to get the whole picture.

That did, of course, add the drawing element to the game. Unless everyone had photographic memory and could perfectly describe what they had seen, they would needed to be able to draw their section. Unfortunately, the clothes weren’t long enough to be wrapped around a head and tied like a proper blindfold, so I simply had players look at the image through the cloth, then draw it afterwards. I placed a time limit on how long they could look at the image for because I noticed that, if you got skilled at stretching the cloth just right, it wasn’t much of a challenge to see through it. I gave the players 10 seconds to look at the image so that, hopefully, they wouldn’t have the time to get accustomed to using the cloth.

The actual gameplay is quick, fun, and confusing at times, which was great because I felt like those qualities kind of captured the essence of Dada.

Rules:
For four players

• A picture is cut up into four pieces
• One by one, players have 10 seconds to look at their given piece
• However, they must look at their piece through a semitransparent blindfold
• After the ten seconds are up, the player must then draw out a recreation of what they saw on a piece of paper
• After all players have seen and drawn their piece, they must put together their pieces and attempt to figure out what the original image was. If their guess is correct, they win.

Playtest:

Play testers noted that the paper used to draw the recreation should be of the same size as the original piece. Also, there was initially a 1 minute time limit at the end of the game when players attempt to put together their pieces, but the deliberation lasted much longer than a minute. Therefore, the time limit was removed.

Whenever the mood strikes, write down the last five things that made you smile.

Draw those five things interacting with each other while participating in one of the following activities:
1) throwing a party
2) taking a nap
3) solving a mystery
4) posing for a photo
5) playing a board game
6) relaxing at the beach

note: if none of these scenes appeal to you, you may choose to draw your five things in any situation you desire

Once completed, stash the drawing away in a place you can easily find later.

On a sad day, pull out the drawing and remember the things that made you happy.

Smile.

PROCESS

My score was mainly inspired by Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit. As I was reading through it, I noticed that most of her scores had some sort of therapeutic property to them. Whether it be screaming into sky or shooting a hundred panes of glass, there always seemed to be something cathartic to finishing one of her scores. I wanted to try and capture this healing element – boil this essence down into an easily achievable activity for a kind of instant relief.

I was also compelled to try and make the piece something to do in solitude. In some scores like “Tunafish Sandwich Piece”, I felt a quiet, meditative sort of vibe. I wanted my score to also involve this sense of self-reflection – a moment to yourself surrounded by good thoughts. The resulting artwork is something made by and made for yourself. It’s possible to share the drawing after the score is completed, but what’s more important is the process of taking a step back and reflecting on what makes you happy.

With that in mind, I made the first iteration of my score. Initially, I had it so that the person completing the piece would roll a dice to decide which scene they would draw their objects in. But as I tried it out for myself, I found myself re-rolling a bunch of times anyways because I didn’t feel like drawing whatever it was I had gotten. In the end, I made the scenarios into more of a guideline instead of a necessity. It just felt sort of silly to try and force people into drawing something they didn’t want to in what was supposed to be a therapeutic activity.

Another thing that got altered was a small phrase at the beginning at the piece. “Whenever the mood strikes” was initially “On a good/happy day”. But, again, as I was testing, I realized that this should happen naturally. I actually tried out the score on a day where I wasn’t feeling too great and found that it helped take my mind off things. I was so focused on tracing over my memories and drawing them into the scene that it sort of drowned out any negative thoughts I had at the time. I never did get around to trying this on a “happy” day, but I can assume that it would have a different vibe to it. It might be worth testing out in the future.

Oh, and here’s a link to the image I ended up drawing. It’s kind of an eclectic mix considering I had just been scrolling through the internet at random at the time, but I feel like that adds a fun element to the piece. It would be interesting to see how different people fit their objects into their scenes and what kinds of interactions come out of it.